Upon further review, the no pitch intentional walk is probably a good change. It really doesn’t change things too much , but if the commissioner and all of the other non-playing corporate types really want to speed up the game they might try limiting the length of commercial breaks between innings and my old favorite, limiting the number of pitchers on the rosters to ten.

Upon further review, now that Tim Raines finally made it to Cooperstown, let’s get Omar Vizquel into the Hall of Fame. Great defense is often under rated and, when it comes to catchers, shortstops, center fielders, and second basemen, it frequently matters more than play on the offensive side because those are the players making most of the plays for better or worse. Vizquel was not just a shortstop, however. His batting numbers improved tremendously after his first three seasons. He had 2877 hits in his 24 seasons and a lifetime on base percentage of .336. He stole 404 bases. Add those facts to his 11 Gold Glove awards (190 errors in 2968 games or one every 15.6 games) and the entertaining delight with which he gracefully played the game and then reserve this Venezuelan artist a seat in the Hall.

Upon further review, it’s a sign that the empire is not declining as rapidly as we had thought since the winner of the All Star game once again has no effect on home field advantage in the World Series. However, rotating between the two leagues was better than the best overall  record method of determining home field advantage since there is no such thing as a balanced schedule. The trend lately has been to blend the two leagues together except for the horribly ridiculous designated sitter thing. They use the same umpires for the National and American Leagues. There is apparently a rule that all ballparks in each league must treat the paying customers as if they all fell off a roof or dump truck and suffered brain damage.That has to be why they use electronic messages instructing them to “make some noise” or cue the organ for the intellectually stimulating “Let’s Go (insert team nickname here)” chant while at the same time the public address system needs to play inappropriate very loud “music” so that it’s difficult to remember why we’re all there. So maybe we could differentiate a little, like maybe having the National League confine itself to more natural baseball sounds while the American League goes apeshit with over amplified video game noises and AC/DC.

Upon further review, it is heartwarming to see a good guy and a strong player like Giancarlo Stanton having a wildly successful season after the tough luck he in particular and the Marlins as a team have had in recent seasons. They have been moving up in the standings too and can look forward to 2018 under new ownership. Sort of the feel good story of the year, and I hope I haven’t jinxed them.